A Brighter Future
by Dhagon
Summary: There are a lot of people who would be more then happy to be born in the Harry Potter universe. Some would even be happy being Harry Potter. Not me. As far as I could tell, I was placed in a horrible position to bail out a society that I absolutely loathed. To hell with that. You can't fix what's already broken and I'm not going to try. One shot


A Bright Future

(A/N): I don't own HP

When I woke up inside a cupboard under a set of stairs I was pissed. First came this really loud banging, like someone playing drums outside my room.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

I don't recognize that voice. And it's not nearly nice enough for me to wish I did. So I sit up and promptly wish I hadn't.

The hell? I clutch my head in pain.

The dim light lets me see where I am. I'm in a stair cupboard. I don't even have a stair cupboard!

"Are you up yet?"

This seems horribly familiar. As if just waiting for that realization memories crash down on me. Ten unhappy years of child abuse.

"Hurry up or you aren't getting any breakfast!"

I just groan. This is not a good situation. In fact this is the opposite of good. I'm going to kill someone.

"Fine! Just stay in there if you aren't hungry!" I hear the lock engage as the shrill woman, aunt Petunia, walks away muttering about ungrateful brats.

Correction, I'm going to kill a lot of people.

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I spent the rest of the day trying to recall everything I could about the Harry Potter universe. I'm sure loads of people would just love to be in my shoes. Even more who would just want to chance to be part of the story.

I wasn't one of them. Like so many popular children's stories, Harry Potter is pretty horrific universe to live in. Bigotry, Corruption, the setting is not a good place to be.

I'm just thankful the setting was so popular. I hadn't read the books in years, but the movies and games were popular enough I had a decent amount of exposure.

As I plot I do my best to ignore the smell of the sizzling bacon. My stomach complains, but it's not like I can do anything about it.

My attempted meditation is interrupted when my cupboard door is suddenly opened. A grossly overweight man with a really fluffy mustache stares at me. I expected him to be red with anger, but instead he's pale and kind of sickly looking.

His voice seemed off as well. It was hoarse and strained. "Harry. About your cupboard. You're reallly getting a bit bit for it. Why don't you take your things upstairs and move into Dudley's second bedroom."

Ha! I know exactly what was going on. I look and sure enough he's holding an envelope made from thick parchment. I can't help myself.

"Uncle Vernon. What's that?" Pointing innocently at it.

"Never you mind. Go upstairs. Now."

I went.

Dudley's second room, now mine, was a treasure trove. Spoiled beyond belief he used it to store all of his broken toys and discarded items. He couldn't stand for anything to be thrown away that was his so they just ended up stored here.

Under the guise of moving in I thoroughly searched everything. It didn't take me long to find what I needed. The memories were a bit faint, but I still remember Dudley often getting handed money whenever he asked about something. Since his parents also bought anything he asked for he should still have it.

It was a bit sickening to find several hundred pounds scattered in the pockets of his discarded clothes. So much just wasted and none to spare for Harry. Or me rather.

I should probably start thinking of myself as Harry or I'm likely to end up with an identity crisis.

A large hat and some cellophane from a wrapper gave me a disguise. With eyes as green as mine, a red cellophane covering will turn them black. It looks pretty tacky, but on the other hand my glasses are already held together with tape.

Since they didn't assign me any chores, an unusual occurrence from my new memories, I immediately leave. I walk over a few blocks to catch the bus and I make my way over to Charring Cross Road, home of the Leaky Cauldron.

If I hadn't been looking for it I definitely would have missed it. It was tiny seedy pub squeezed between two much more modern businesses. It looked like it belonged in a Renaissance Festival and not one of the more popular ones. The inside wasn't much better.

It was poorly lit, relying on the giant fireplace and several torches. Which seems like a bad idea since everything was made from wood. Poorly made at that, the kind of wood that is just guaranteed to give you splinters if you so much as touch it.

There were few people present and I scanned them reflexively. I didn't recognize anyone, which was good. The longer I could go without being caught the freer I could act.

"Why hello there lad. What can I do for you?" The barkeeper's voice caught me by surprise.

I took a moment to look at him. He seemed middle aged, which probably doesn't mean anything, was bald and very wrinkled.

Disguise in place I did my best to appear shy and embarrassed to need help. "Excuse me. I was told to ask Tom about getting into Diagon Ally?"

He grinned down on me in a friendly way and best of all without recognition. "Well Tom would be me. And I'm guessing Hogwarts?"

I nod, making sure to stare at my feet. I've always enjoyed acting. At least for short durations.

He opened the entrance for me and I politely thanked him before heading to Gringotts. It was easy enough to spot. It was pure white and by far the tallest building in the alley.

I got a number of disdainful looks. Likely for my shabby clothing. I didn't much like them myself so I just grin and shrug at those who glare the hardest.

Once inside the bank I can see numerous goblins busy appraising various gems. Given how few wizards are in the bank I wonder if they do it just to show off.

I walk up to the teller that has the fewest people nearby. "I wish to speak with my account manager."

"Name?"

I lean in so I can whisper. "Potter."

At his skeptical look I raise my hat and lower my shades. That doesn't convince him. Fortunately a drop of blood does.

I have a new vault key made but don't cancel my other. No need to give anything away.

I withdrew quite a bit of money. I planned on spending quite a bit today. Then I headed to Ollivanders. Before anything else I needed a wand.

Ollivander is just as annoying as he is in the books. From the jump scare to the silly measuring and over dramatic trial and error wand show. He eventually gives me my wand though.

Bonding to it feels like nothing I've ever experienced. Like the good kind of ache you get from stretching tired muscles. Like my blood was singing.

Holly and phoenix feather. So I really am Harry Potter. I had wondered if I still counted. Guess so.

While Ollivander is getting me a wand holster and cleaning kit I waste no time trying my first spell. "Lumos."

A soft white glow fills the room. I had a reason to try a spell. I wanted to get a feel for how it felt to cast. I feel the pull and I close my eyes to follow it. I can feel just how little of my magic it's taking. Good, my plan just might work after all.

I open my eyes to see Ollivander staring at me. "Great things indeed. That will be 25 galleons."

I raise my wand and cast my second ever spell. "Stupify."

I pushed everything I have into it. The beam of red light throws him backwards and the shelf that stops him collapses.

I'm left panting, half kneeling on the floor. That took a lot more energy than I expected. I close the shop door and put up the closed sign before staggering over to him. I still have one more spell to cast. "Obliviate."

I concentrate, focusing on my desire to completely erase all memory of my wand and my visit. Supposedly you can implant false memories with the spell, but I don't want to try anything too fancy. I nearly black out and it takes several minutes before I feel like I can walk again.

I go to the back and take three more wand holsters, one for my other wrist and one for each of my ankles. I take the time to test several to find ones that become invisible once I put them on and seem to be made from dragon hide.

I then dig through the pile of discarded wands for the handful that I had kept track of. My problem wasn't finding a wand that reacted to me. Almost all of them did that. My problem had been finding one that reacted correctly.

I now had wands that with a mere flick conjured swords, set things on fire and acted like a powerful force push. The rest of the pile I dumped into my money bag along with a few others. No point leaving any kind of clue as to who was there.

I was barely conscious by that point. Those two spells had just about drained me completely. I made my way back to the Leaky Cauldron and rented a room.

When I make my way down I panic for a moment when Tom addresses me by my previous name. I barely keep from laughing as I realize that in my fatigue I had used it to sign in.

I eat a late lunch before resuming my shopping. I got to try butterbeer and was not a fan. To bad I was too young to try fire whiskey.

I bought an elaborate trunk with as many features as I could get including the ability to shrink down no larger than a matchbox and as many defensive enchantments as possible. It had a few expanded spaces along with a one secret expanded space that was big enough to hold a flat.

Unlike in Dungeons and Dragons nesting extra-dimensional objects doesn't have any effect on them. The tent salesmen answer of "It's wizarding space, what should happen to it?" was less then helpful.

Still after he demonstrated for me I made his day by ordering four custom tents. I planned on turning my flat into a full scale mansion made up of a series of nested spaces. He promised to hold my order until I come back for it, which he shouldn't mind given how much money I spent there.

Hopefully I'll never need something so elaborate, but just in case I ever end up hunted and on the run it'll be nice to have.

I stopped my shopping at that point. Hagrid was going to be picking me up and there was no point in letting him know I'd already been here.

Hagrid who also picks up the philosopher's stone.

I change my mind and buy the rest of the school supplies along with the books for all seven years. Hermione practiced spells for almost a year before starting and she never got in trouble. Hopefully I'll be safe enough.

I make my way home and as soon as I step inside Petunia starts shrieking at me. I ignore it as I draw my wand. "Imperio."

In the books they talk about having to mean it. How desire and intent shape your magic far more then anything else. I guess this proves it.

I crushed every speck of independence out of her. Replacing it with my will. It was a heady feeling. I can easily see why the dark arts is considered addictive. Once Dudley and Vernon arrive home I place them under the curse as well.

Things are finally starting to look up.

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I let the rest of the week play out as per canon. Except instead of panic and anger they just ignored the letters and calmly burned them.

I make good use of the time. I make a few more trips to Diagon Ally along with a few other places. Every day I end up exhausted from spell casting and collapse into bed.

On schedule we sailed out to the middle of nowhere for my birthday. It was isolated, desolate. Perfect.

When Hagrid shows up we all greet him. I pluck a hair from his hand when I shake it and then step back. "Now."

On cue every one of the Dursleys pulls out the guns I had stolen. Powerful military rifles with large clips full of armor piercing rounds. Hagrid, poor unsuspecting sap, barely realizes he's in danger before dying. And thanks to the storm and distance no one heard a thing.

As soon as he's dead I search his body. I take back my key and the letter from Dumbledore. I feel a bit bad about Hagrid, but some sacrifices have to be made for _the greater good_.

And of course the Philosopher's Stone is too big a prize to pass up.

Immediately we take the boat back to shore and make our way to London. It's early morning when we arrive and only Vernon and I proceeded. Petunia took Dudley to get us a room for the day.

Just before entering the Leaky Cauldron I take out the bottle I had been holding and drop a hair in. I hand it over to Vernon and have him drink it. Vernon, already dressed in Hagrids clothes balloons upwards to fill them in.

I really am famous. 'Hagrids' presence is the only thing that keeps me from being crushed under the weight of my fans. It's a reminder that I'm going to have to push myself if I'm to succeed and beware those who only want to know me for my fame like Ron and Ginny.

I don't really care what what Rowling said, it always struck me as creepy how Ginny acted. I was pretty convinced she slipped him a love potion too. Not that it'll matters now.

The visit to Gringotts is where I make a deliberate change. I have 'Hagrid' go through his rehearsed lines. "We're here to have Mr. Harry Potter pick up some gold."

He promptly hands over the key and as soon as the teller was done inspecting it the letter from Dumbledore. "Since the carts don't agree with me, have little Harry here pick up the you-know-what."

It's clear the goblin doesn't care and sends me off with another called Bonecrusher. I wonder if all of them have such descriptive names.

I don't really need much money, but still grab a bit. It was when I got the Vault 713 that I was nervous. When I picked up the small brown paper bag I couldn't resisted the urge to look inside. I grinned as I saw the large red stone laying inside.

I carefully replaced the stone with a 30 sickles and once back on the main floor made a production of handing it over. No one ever see it, but it amused me.

I send 'Hagrid' out with the stone to meet up with the others while I head back into the alley. I have business here.

I peak into several stores before I find who I was looking for. Lucius Malfoy. And best of all he's standing off the side as a clerk gathers books. No doubt for his son.

"Imperio." All my practice pays off. I barely whisper the incantation. I also dominate him easily. He really is spineless. Vernon was harder to control than him.

I hold a staged conversation in which he takes me to see his wife and son, which I also Imperio. I quickly drink a Pepper Up potion. Despite my practice three large spells is still pretty much my limit.

I have them side apparate me back to their manor where I fall asleep in a guest room.

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Malfoy manor is quite beautiful. I actually feel bad that I plan on destroying it. Once I recover I have the Malfoys transfer all their house elves over to me, including Dobby. I actually offer to free him, but he's so in awe of the 'Great Mister Harry Potter Sir' that he refuses.

Still I offer days off and a house elf expense account for any who wish to take it. Of course the elves can still choose to spend their days off working, but the option is there. I also cancel most of their previous orders, such as punishments. House elves are remarkably useful, it just makes sense to take care of them.

The next day was busy. I have the Malfoys purchase a number of illegal potions. It was nerve wracking buying the polyjuice despite several Imperiused bodyguards. So much easier to have a minion do it for me.

I also had him buy me some invisibility cloaks, the vanishing cabinet from Burkes and several expanded trunks. The first couple of trunks are sent with the house elves to empty most of the Malfoy vaults into.

Then I have him invite the Crabbe and Goyle families over one at a time. I have Lucius Imperio them to make it easier on myself. Besides its not like anyone expects intelligent conversation from either of them.

I make sure to return home that night even if I do sleep in my trunk. I have no doubt Dumbledore is still monitoring me.

When I return the next day I have the house elves furnish my trunk manor by stripping Malfoy Manor. I make sure to take the library. Now I don't feel quite as bad about eventually burning it down.

The library actually reminds me of the weird smoke apparition the death eaters use and I have him start writing down on all his unique and unusual spells for me.

My third day at the Malfoys I place Fudge under the Imperius. I can feel a slight strain, as if each Imperius is creating a slight draw upon my magic.

I repeat this over the next week. Each time a new family is Imperiused I have their vaults emptied into a trunk and their library into another. They each add in any extra spells they know. It also became easier as I had more and more controlled minions lurking under invisibility cloaks to ambush each guest.

I didn't just move against the death eaters. I had my house elves kidnap Peter Pettigrew from the burrow. After cutting off his legs and stealing Voldemort's wand I turned him over. My puppet Fudge wasted no time in moving to giving Sirius Black his trial.

Of course he spun it as fixing the mistakes of his predecessors, but no one would ever accuse Fudge of being moral.

I then used several of my death eaters to ambush Crouch. They killed his son and then brought him to me to Imperius. Sadly Winky died trying to defend him. Yet another egg for the omelet.

Once under my control I had him go to Azkaban. There he 'snapped' and killed both the LeStrange brothers and then Bellatrix in that precise order. Afterwards he cast fiendfyre and burned down most of Azkaban.

The investigation found the body of his son at home. Combined with his rant about reputation the day before and everyone just decided he had snapped.

The last death eater I captured as Snape. I made sure I was well rested before Imperiusing him. Following Lucius he was the most vital to my plans. And with that I had the complete set. Time for the next stage.

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I had no doubt eventually some of the death eaters would break free so it was time to start making major moves against my real enemies. Voldemort and Dumbledore.

With the loss of Hagrid and Snape I blinded Dumbledore. So I moved against him first. It helped that Quirrel was already in the castle. It was two for the price of one!

I sent Snape to kill Dumbledore. I have no doubt he'd lose in a fight, especially while controlled. So I cheated. He went to Dumbledore's office and threw his wand at Fawkes. When Dumbledore's eyes followed the wand Snape shot him with a pistol hidden in his sleeve.

He emptied the entire clip into Dumbledore's body before reloading and then turning the gun on himself. Fawkes tried to save him, but there was a reason I gave Snape a .50 caliber pistol. The bullets were barely slowed by the phoenix.

As soon as I felt my link to Snape break I sent in Crabbe and Goyle. They used invisibility cloaks and a secret tunnel to enter the school. Once inside they walked up to Quirrel and just blasted him with shotguns.

I felt the links to both of them break soon after. I'm not sure if they succeeded and committed suicide or were killed but it doesn't matter. I had already obliviated all knowledge of the past few weeks before sending them out just in case.

With both my opponents down, if only temporarily, I moved on to horcruxes.

Dobby with a silk bag retrieved the Diadem of Ravenclaw as well as got me the second vanishing cabinet. He also confirmed Quirrel died and a black mist rose from his body. He also retrieved both the Potter invisibility cloak.

He also stole Dumbledore's wand for me. Although I don't think of it so much as stealing as reparations for how he screwed up my life.

I sacrificed a few families to retrieve the Ring. I had the stone pried off since only the ring needed to be destroyed. I now had all three Deathly Hallows. I just hope it makes my next step a bit safer.

Since I still have the soul shard in my scar I have it removed. An imperiused surgeon combined with a discrete healer physically cut out my entire scar, including a section of my skull. Then they regrew everything.

Sirius, once released from the healers, was more than willing to do me a few favors. It only took a few minutes to summon Kreacher and retrieve the locket. He also was told the story behind it.

While he was grieving over his brother I had him sign a document claiming the LeStrange vaults and giving me access to them. Then I sent in Dobby again.

I threw one hell of a farewell party for my death eaters. The ball was invitation only and I made sure that all of the worst pureblood bigots were there. The center piece of the ball was the horcruxes even if no one recognized them. My elves kept watch from the outside to make sure no one escaped.

Then I had every controlled death eater cast fiendfyre.

I made sure Fudge didn't arrive and had him wait until the next day to kill Umbridge and then himself 'in despair' over the loss of his closest friend.

With everyone who could prove a problem to me gone I could finally relax. Only the Dursleys were a potential problem, but I was having too much fun deciding their fate to rush things. I made sure to undergo my own healing regimen so there wasn't any evidence against them. No point in freeing Sirius if he was just going to be immediately sent back to jail.

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Hogwarts doesn't close although it does get delayed since they hold Dumbledore's funeral on the grounds. I don't begrudge him that, just his presence in my life.

As I board the express I make sure to wave goodbye to Sirius. I'm old enough mentally to not need a new father, but he plays fun uncle extremely well.

Strangely Sirius figured out I had been behind everything. When he confronted me I was a breath away from obliviating him. And that's when he started laughing. He considered it the biggest and most elaborate prank ever. Or in his words I helped the wizarding world to get over itself.

I'm as prepared as can be for school. Mine and Voldemorts wands are on either wrist and the Elder Wand is in an ankle holster. I have a potion bandoleer as well as mokeskin pouch full of muggle weapons. My robes are all subtlety armored with kevlar and various enchantments. And the Dursleys were currently locked away in my trunk.

For me the future seems bright and I was determined to keep it that way. Even if I have to light the way with funeral pyres.


End file.
